Brooklyn, NY, Feb. 5, 2025 – Maimonides Health announced today that it has been awarded $400,000 in grant funding from the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation, the largest grantmaking organization focused exclusively on advancing the health and well-being of New Yorkers. The funding supports the mission of the Brooklyn Parenting Center, a Maimonides pediatric program serving families navigating pregnancy and parenting, in collaboration with Maimonides Care Management, which partners with patients, family caregivers, and providers to identify social support needs and address risk factors that impact health.

The grant award will support increased provider capacity and specialized training among the team of dedicated, onsite care managers at the Parenting Center who screen patients and families for unmet social care needs like food and housing insecurity, and mental and physical health concerns. Care managers offer care coordination support and connections to assistance programs like Medicaid and CHIP, in addition to initiating referrals to the CCB Navigator, a care management screening and referral service connecting patients to over 300 community-based programs and services. Funding will also provide for provision of essential safety supplies like car seats and cribs for families with infants and toddlers. With this new resource, Maimonides providers hope to leverage screening services to serve 70% of prenatal and pediatric patients and around 60% of postpartum patients at Maimonides, making up a total target of 6,280 patients for the coming year.

The Brooklyn Parenting Center serves families navigating pregnancy and parenting before their child is born, shortly following their child’s birth, and/or in the early childhood stage of 0 to 2 years old, with dedicated teams of obstetric, prenatal, and pediatric specialists. These services help address a critical period that impacts a child’s health into adulthood, and reduce health risk factors. By connecting these pediatric patients and their families with resources they want and need, the Center will address both clinical and social care needs. As part of the grant, the Parenting Center will also evaluate its program to ensure efficacy and create a long-term sustainability plan to ensure the program continues to serve Brooklyn families for years to come.

Maimonides is Brooklyn’s largest healthcare provider, and an essential part of the safety net for some of the borough’s most vulnerable populations, including Brooklyn’s 200,000 children under the age of 5, 25% of whom live under the poverty line. Maimonides is dedicated to providing care for the underserved, like the many families who lack access to comprehensive, integrated medical care that addresses both physical and socio-emotional health. The Brooklyn Parenting Center was created to identify and address these needs in low-barrier setting to promote health equity for our patients.

“Since launching the Brooklyn Parenting Center last year, we have connected with thousands of prenatal and pediatric patients through screenings and referrals, gauging more holistic determinants of health and allowing us to address factors that contribute to adversity and bolster those that contribute to resilience. Through this work we partner with families and community organizations to positively impact child development, social needs, perinatal and postpartum mental health, delayed milestones, environmental conditions, and break the cycle of trauma,” said Yonit Lax, MD, Brooklyn Parenting Center Program Director and Chief of Pediatric Community Health at Maimonides. “With more babies delivered at Maimonides each year than any other hospital in Brooklyn, we are thrilled that this funding will allow us to leverage our reach to screen and assist more than double the current number of patients seen through the Center, helping us give more families the best possible start early in each child’s life.”

The funding is part of the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation’s 539 grants totaling $208 million announced on Jan. 16, including $3.8 million targeted toward improving maternal health outcomes, ensuring that high-quality, comprehensive prenatal, perinatal, and postpartum care is available for all mothers in New York, especially for those impacted by health disparities correlated with race, income, and other factors.

“We are humbled by the wide-ranging impact our grantmaking has made in just six years, and most importantly, by the dedication of our grantee partners to improve the health of the people of New York State,” said Msgr. Gregory Mustaciuolo, Chief Executive Officer, Mother Cabrini Health Foundation. “These new grants mark a significant milestone in our work and reaffirm our commitment to be responsive to emerging health challenges facing the most vulnerable children and adults in our communities.” 

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About The Mother Cabrini Health Foundation

The Mother Cabrini Health Foundation is a private, nonprofit organization whose mission is to improve the health and wellbeing of New Yorkers, bolster the health outcomes of vulnerable communities, eliminate barriers to care, and bridge gaps in health services. Named after a tireless advocate for immigrants, children, and the poor, the Mother Cabrini Health foundation funds programs and initiatives across New York State that either provide direct healthcare services or address the social determinants of health. For more information, visit cabrinihealth.org. Further information: communications@cabrinihealth.org.